Method and apparatus for issuing a credit

ABSTRACT

A system that incorporates teachings of the present disclosure may include, for example, a method to monitor service outages of a service center, detect a service outage, identify one or more customers affected by the service outage, and assign a credit to each of the affected one or more customers. Additional embodiments are disclosed.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No.11/178,651 filed Jul. 11, 2005 which is incorporated herein by referencein its entirety.

FIELD OF THE DISCLOSURE

This disclosure relates generally to crediting techniques, and moreparticularly to a method and apparatus for issuing a credit.

BACKGROUND OF THE DISCLOSURE

Large service providers today employ a number of service agents toaddress customer needs such as billing, new services, servicecancellations, and technical support, just to mention a few. Withrespect to billing, often times customers call to dispute charges suchas an incorrect charge, a charge for service during outages, overbilling, and so on. Many times the resolution for these disputes isroutine and simple to resolve. However, because of call volumes, thereare instances when service agents cannot serve customers in a timelymanner, or are overburdened by routine requests.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 depicts an illustrative embodiment of a communication system; and

FIGS. 2-3 depict illustrative embodiments of methods operating inportions of the communication system of FIG. 1.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

One embodiment of the present disclosure entails a computer-readablestorage medium having computer instructions to detect a service outageat a service center, identify one or more customers affected by theservice outage, and assign a credit to each of the affected one or morecustomers.

One embodiment of the present disclosure entails an account managementsystem having a controller to monitor service outages of a servicecenter, detect a service outage, identify one or more customers affectedby the service outage, and assign a credit to at least a portion of theaffected one or more customers. One embodiment of the present disclosureentails a method to monitor service outages of a service center, detecta service outage, identify one or more customers affected by the serviceoutage, and determine a credit for at least a portion of the affectedone or more customers.

FIG. 1 is block diagram of an account management system (AMS) 100coupled to a communications network 101 serving customers 108 accordingto an embodiment of the present disclosure. The AMS 100 comprises acommunications interface 110, a memory 104 and a controller 102. Thecommunications interface 110 utilizes conventional wired or wirelesscommunications technology for interfacing to the communications network101. The communications interface 110 can represent a circuit switchedand/or a packet switched interface. Internet or traditional voiceservices can be provided by network 101 to customers 108. Thus, thecommunications network 101 can support multiple services such as: VoIP(Voice over Internet communications, IPTV (Internet ProtocolTelevision), broadband communications, cellular telephony, and otherknown or future communication services.

The controller 102 utilizes conventional computing technology such as adesktop computer, or a scalable server. The memory 104 utilizesconventional mass storage media such as a high capacity disk drive, andcan be used by the controller 102 to manage a database in accordancewith the present disclosure. The AMS 100 can also use conventionalapplications such as an IVR (Interactive Voice Response) application,and/or a CRM (Customer Relations Management) application for interactingwith customers 108 and managing account information, respectively.

By way of the communications interface 110, the AMS 100 can accessindependently operated remote systems such as a billing system 120and/or an activity-based tracking system 130 that can provideinformation such as customer usage, identification of affected customersduring system outages, and other relevant information pertaining tooperations of network 101. The AMS 100 can also perform updates on, forexample, the billing system 120 as it processes customer calls inaccordance with the disclosure. It will be appreciated that in thealternative the remote systems 120 and 130 can be in whole or in part anintegral part of the AMS 100. Where the AMS 100 is unable to serveparticular customer requests, it can direct such callers to one or morehuman agents 112 of the service provider as needed.

The communication network 101 in the present illustration represents anembodiment of a service center that the AMS 100 can support according tothe present disclosure. It will become exceedingly obvious to an artisanwith skill in the art from the descriptions below that a service centercan take numerous other embodiments not discussed herein. Thus, anyservice enterprise for which customers can request and/or disputebilling information in relation to services offered to said customers isconsidered to be within the scope and spirit of the claims listed below.

FIGS. 2-3 depict flowcharts of a method 200 operating in the AMS 100according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. FIG. 2 illustratesa background process operating in the AMS 100 for automaticallygenerating credit assignments to customers 108. This background processbegins with step 202 where the AMS 100 is programmed to monitor serviceoutages. As noted earlier, this step 202 can be performed by queryingthe activity-based tracking system 120 for outages. The AMS 100continues to monitor for outages of network 101 until such time anoutage is detected in step 204. Once detected, the AMS 100 proceeds tostep 206 to identify those customers who have been affected by theservice outage.

The term “affected” as used in step 206 can have a broad or narrowmeaning. In its broadest meaning, affected can mean any customer whocould have been impacted by the outage whether or not they were activelyengaged using said service. In its narrowest meaning, affected meansonly those customers who were impacted by the outage because they werein the midst of using service and were interrupted by the outage, orattempted to use service during the outage and were unable to. The AMS100 can be programmed to monitor at the activity-based tracking system130 any meaning for this term that is suitable for general businesspractices of the service provider.

In step 208, the AMS 100 assigns a credit to each of the affectedcustomers identified in step 206. As just noted, the selection ofcustomers given credit can be narrowed to those who were actively usingthe service or attempted to use the service during the outage.Otherwise, credit can be given to a broader group of customers who wereor could have been affected by the outage. The credit can be determinedaccording to any method suitable for the present disclosure. Forexample, the AMS 100 can be programmed with business rules forcategorizing customers and providing weighted values thereto. Customers108 can be categorized, for example, by business, or consumer.Additionally, a weighted customer value can be created on the basis of,for example, longevity of the customer, credit rating of the customer,promptness of the customer to pay bills, number of services procured bysaid customer, and so on. Additionally, for highly valued customers(such as business clients), credit can be provided on the basis ofmeaningful rather than prorated credit. That is, if a four hour outageconstitutes a nominal credit value (e.g., $2.55), the AMS 100 can beprogrammed to supply a week, or a month worth of credit to select valuedcustomers, thereby conveying to said customer that the service providerunderstands the value of time in a business setting and values thecustomer's continued business.

Once credits have been assigned, the AMS 100 can be programmed toproactively credit the accounts of the affected customers and notifythem of this credit redemption in step 210. Notification can beperformed by any available communications medium such as, for example,an over-the-air SMS (Short Message Services) wireless message, an email,a posting on an Internet website, and/or conventional postal servicecorrespondence. The notification can include the credit amount and asuitable explanation for the credit. It can also include a legaldisclaimer waiving liability for any damage or loss of profit caused tothe affected customers. From step 210, the AMS 100 repeats the foregoingmonitoring and credit generation steps.

Alternatively, the AMS 100 can be programmed to wait for a proactivestep from the customers (as will be described in FIG. 3) beforeredeeming the credit of any of the affected customers. In thisembodiment, the AMS 100 can be programmed to detect when the creditbecomes stale for failure of a customer to redeem its credit within apredetermined period set by the AMS 100. If period has not expired, theAMS 100 returns to step 202 to repeat the process described above. If anexpiration is detected, then said credit is flagged in step 214 andprocessed in step 216. Step 216 can be represented by any number ofembodiments suitable to the present disclosure. For example, the AMS 100can be programmed to cancel the flagged credit indefinitely, discountthe credit, or cancel the credit after a second predetermined periodexpires.

The steps described in FIG. 2 can be performed as a background processthat periodically operates in the AMS 100. In the foreground, the AMS100 can operate the method depicted in FIG. 3 for processing calls fromcustomers 108. In this embodiment, the activities of the backgroundprocess of FIG. 2 are made known to the method shown in FIG. 3.Accordingly, this embodiment begins with step 220 where the AMS 100receives a call from a calling party 108. The call can be a conventionalvoice call such as VoIP or a circuit switched voice call, or an Internetaccess. In the former, the AMS 100 can employ a conventional IVRfunction, while in the latter the AMS 100 can employ conventionaltechniques for presenting a webpage to its customers and performingexchanges with the customer therewith.

In step 222, the AMS 100 receives an identification of the callingparty. The identification can be a caller ID, an account number, socialsecurity number, or other form of identification that the AMS 100 canutilize to identify the customer from one of its databases. Once thecaller is identified, in step 224 the AMS 100 determines if said calleris one of the affected parties identified by the background process ofFIG. 2. If so, the AMS 100 has two embodiments if can apply.

In a first embodiment, the AMS 100 can present the caller a credit foran identified outage. The presentation can be accompanied with anapology for the interruption in service, a disclaimer of liability,and/or any other message that will make the customer feel that theservice provider values the customer's business. The AMS 100 thenqueries the customer in step 238 whether this credit is acceptable tosaid customer. Acceptance can be initiated by the caller by stating“Yes”, or depressing an acceptance button on a webpage. If the calleraccepts, the AMS 100 then credits the customer's account in step 240,and can provide a message such as thanking the customer for itsunderstanding and/or other comforting statement recognizing the customeras a valued client.

If the caller rejects the offered credit, then the AMS 100 proceeds tostep 242 where it determines a weighted customer value. The weightedcustomer value (as described earlier) gives the AMS 100 an indicationhow important this customer is to the service provider. Based on thisvalue, the AMS 100 can be programmed to adjust the credit and presentsaid adjustment in step 244. If the caller accepts the adjusted creditin step 246, then the customer's account is credited in step 240 asdescribed before. If, on the other hand, the customer rejects thissecond credit offer, the AMS 100 can redirect the caller to a humanagent in step 248 that is trained by the service provider according toits policies to address customer disputes.

Alternatively, the AMS 100 can proceed to step 250 where it presents thecalling party billable charges for the customer to review. In step 252,the AMS 100 receives a disputed charge from the customer 108. If in step254 the AMS 100 detects that the disputed charge is one that has beenassigned a credit due to an outage, the AMS 100 proceeds to step 236 andsubsequent steps as described earlier. If not, the AMS 100 directs thecaller to the agent 248.

Referring back to step 224, if the calling party is not an affectedcustomer, the AMS 100 proceeds to step 226 where it presents thecustomer billable charges for services rendered. In step 228, the AMS100 receives a disputed charge and corresponding description from thecustomer 108. The description, for example, can be one of a number ofoptions presented to the customer for explaining the dispute. The AMS100 can be programmed to compare the description selected to one or moreacceptable disputes identified by the service provider. If there is amatch, then the AMS 100 proceeds to step 232 where it determines aweighted customer value (as described in step 242). A credit istherefore assigned in step 234 from this weighted value and according tobusiness rules established by the service provider. The AMS 100 thenproceeds to step 236 and subsequent steps as described above. If thedisputed charge, and the description given is rejected in step 230, theAMS 100 directs the caller to the agent in step 248.

It should be evident that the automated billing and credit methoddescribed in FIGS. 2 and 3 substantially eliminates the burden ofroutine tasks imposed on human agents. Moreover, the AMS 100 can operate24 hours a day everyday of the year. Thus, customers 108 can be servedat their convenience, thereby significantly improving customersatisfaction and loyalty to the service provider.

It should also be evident by now that the present disclosure can berealized in hardware, software, or a combination of hardware andsoftware. Moreover, the present disclosure can be realized in acentralized fashion, or in a distributed fashion where differentelements are spread across several interconnected processors. Thus, anykind of computing device or other apparatus adapted for carrying outmethod 200 described above is suitable for the present disclosure.

It should be also evident that the present disclosure may be used formany applications. Thus, although the description is made for particulararrangements and methods, the intent and concept of the presentdisclosure is suitable and applicable to other arrangements andapplications not described herein. For example, method 200 can bereduced to steps 202, 204, 206 and 208 within the scope of the claimsdescribed herein.

In accordance with various embodiments of the present disclosure, themethods described herein are intended for operation as software programsrunning on a computer processor. Dedicated hardware implementationsincluding, but not limited to, application specific integrated circuits,programmable logic arrays and other hardware devices can likewise beconstructed to implement the methods described herein. Furthermore,alternative software implementations including, but not limited to,distributed processing or component/object distributed processing,parallel processing, or virtual machine processing can also beconstructed to implement the methods described herein.

A software program in the present context means any expression, in anylanguage, code or notation, of a set of instructions intended to cause asystem having an information processing capability to perform aparticular function either directly or after either or both of thefollowing: a) conversion to another language, code or notation; b)reproduction in a different material form.

It should also be noted that the software implementations of the presentdisclosure as described herein are optionally stored on a tangiblestorage medium, such as: a magnetic medium such as a disk or tape; amagneto-optical or optical medium such as a disk; or a solid statemedium such as a memory card or other package that houses one or moreread-only (non-volatile) memories, random access memories, otherre-writable (volatile) memories or Signals containing instructions. Adigital file attachment to e-mail or other self-contained informationarchive or set of archives sent through signals is considered adistribution medium equivalent to a tangible storage medium.Accordingly, the present disclosure is considered to include a tangiblestorage medium or distribution medium, as listed herein and includingart-recognized equivalents and successor media, in which the softwareimplementations herein are stored.

Although the present specification describes components and functionsimplemented in the embodiments with reference to particular standardsand protocols, the present disclosure is not limited to such standardsand protocols. Each of the standards for Internet and other packetswitched network transmission (e.g., TCP/IP, UDP/IP, HTML, HTTP)represent examples of the state of the art that are applicable to thepresent disclosure. Such standards are periodically superseded by fasteror more efficient equivalents having essentially the same functions.Accordingly, replacement standards and protocols having the samefunctions are considered equivalents.

The described embodiments ought to be construed to be merelyillustrative of some of the more prominent features and applications ofthe present disclosure. It should also be understood that the claims areintended to cover the structures described herein as performing therecited function and not only structural equivalents. Therefore,equivalent structures that read on the description should also beconstrued to be inclusive of the scope of the present disclosure asdefined in the following claims.

The Abstract of the Disclosure is provided to comply with 37 C.F.R.§1.72(b), requiring an abstract that will allow the reader to quicklyascertain the nature of the technical disclosure. It is submitted withthe understanding that it will not be used to interpret or limit thescope or meaning of the claims. In addition, in the foregoing DetailedDescription, it can be seen that various features are grouped togetherin a single embodiment for the purpose of streamlining the disclosure.This method of disclosure is not to be interpreted as reflecting anintention that the claimed embodiments require more features than areexpressly recited in each claim. Rather, as the following claimsreflect, inventive subject matter lies in less than all features of asingle disclosed embodiment. Thus the following claims are herebyincorporated into the Detailed Description, with each claim standing onits own as a separately claimed subject matter.

1. A computer-readable storage medium, comprising computer instructionsto: detect a service outage at a service center; identify one or morecustomers affected by the service outage; assign a credit to each of theaffected one or more customers; receive a call from a calling party;identify the calling party as one of the affected one or more customers;receive from the calling party a dispute for a service provided to thecustomer by the service center; and present the credit to the callingparty.
 2. The storage medium of claim 1, comprising computerinstructions to: receive identification from the calling party, whereinthe calling party is identified as one of the affected one or morecustomers from the identification.
 3. The storage medium of claim 2,wherein the calling party is presented the credit only when the callingparty is identified as one of the affected customers.
 4. The storagemedium of claim 1, comprising computer instructions to: receiveidentification from the calling party and identify the calling party asone of the affected one or more customers according to the receivedidentification.
 5. The storage medium of claim 1, comprising computerinstructions to: query the calling party for acceptance of the credit;and apply the credit to the disputed charge upon receiving an acceptancefrom the calling party.
 6. The storage medium of claim 1, comprisingcomputer instructions to: determine a weighted customer value for thecalling party; and present an adjusted credit according to the customervalue.
 7. The storage medium of claim 1, comprising computerinstructions to: interconnect the calling party to a human agent uponreceiving a rejection to the credit presented to the calling party. 8.The storage medium of claim 1, comprising computer instructions to: flagthe credit assigned to an affected customer when the customer does notredeem the credit within a predetermined period; and process the flaggedcredit according to one among a group of options comprising cancelingthe credit indefinitely, discounting the credit, and canceling thecredit after a second predetermined period expires.
 9. The storagemedium of claim 1, comprising computer instructions to: credit accountsof at least a portion of the affected customers according to creditrespectively assigned to the portion of the affected customers.
 10. Thestorage medium of claim 1, comprising computer instructions to:determine the credit for each affected customer according to one or morecustomer categories, each category having a corresponding weightedcustomer value.
 11. An account management system, comprising acontroller to: monitor service outages of a service center; detect aservice outage; identify one or more customers affected by the serviceoutage; assign a credit to at least a portion of the affected one ormore customers; receive a call from a calling party; identify thecalling party as one of the affected one or more customers; receive fromthe calling party a dispute for a service provided to the customer bythe service center; and present the credit to the calling party.
 12. Theaccount management system of claim 11, wherein the controller isoperable to: present the calling party the credit only when the callingparty is identified as one of the affected customers.
 13. The accountmanagement system of claim 12, wherein the call corresponds to one amonga group of calls comprising a voice call, and an Internet access, andwherein the controller is programmed to process any one of the group ofcalls.
 14. The account management system of claim 11, wherein thecalling party is presented with the credit for the service responsive todetecting that the calling party is one of the affected one or morecustomers.
 15. The account management system of claim 11, wherein thecontroller is operable to: retrieve information from the call; identifyone of the affected customers from the retrieved information.
 16. Theaccount management system of claim 15, wherein the controller isoperable to: query the calling party for acceptance of the credit; andapply the credit upon receiving an acceptance from the calling party.17. The account management system of claim 15, wherein the controller isoperable to: determine a weighted customer value for the calling party;and present an adjusted credited according to the customer value. 18.The account management system of claim 11, wherein the controller isoperable to flag a credit assigned to an affected customer when thecustomer does not redeem the credit within a predetermined period. 19.The account management system of claim 11, wherein the controller isoperable to notify the affected customers of their credit according toat least one of an email, an Internet website, a wireless message, and apostal service correspondence.
 20. The account management system ofclaim 11, wherein the controller is operable to determine the credit foreach affected customer according to a group of customer categories. 21.A method, comprising steps to: monitor service outages of a servicecenter; detect a service outage; identify one or more customers affectedby the service outage; determine a credit for at least a portion of theaffected one or more customers; receive a call from a calling party;identify the calling party as one of the affected one or more customers;receive from the calling party a dispute for a service provided to thecustomer by the service center; and present the credit to the callingparty.